Last night I started dipping into a book I got from Google Books, Hidden treasures, or, Why some succeed while others fail (here is a link at the Internet Archive, which is best for those outside of the U.S.).

The book’s value is questionable. It presents biographies of people who gained prominence — mostly by amassing fortunes — at its time.

After reading one brief bio, I looked up the person at Wikipedia and discovered what was not mentioned in the book: The guy came to his fortune through a history of swindling!